DCCCD Foundation President Receives National Fundraising Honors - March 2012

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For immediate release — March 31, 2012

(DALLAS) — Betheny Reid, president of the DCCCD Foundation and associate vice chancellor for development, has been named a 2012 recipient of the CASE Commonfund Institutionally Related Foundation Award. That award recognizes individuals who have made great strides in the development and quality of their organizations and who have provided significant service to the community of institutionally related foundations. Reid will be presented with her award during the 20th annual CASE conference for institutionally related foundations, scheduled for April 18-20 in Chicago.

CASE, or the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, is a professional association that serves educational institutions and the advancement of professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. CASE, founded in 1974 when the American Alumni Council and the American College Public Relations Association merged, helps more than 3,400 member institutions build stronger relationships with their alumni and donors, raise funds for campus projects, produce recruitment materials, market their institutions to prospective students, diversify the profession and foster public support for education.

Reid, who has served as president of the DCCCD Foundation for more than 13 years, has presented at state, regional, national and international conferences in locations including Ibadan, Nigeria; London; and South Africa. She also has served CASE as a judge for awards programs, a consultant and conference leader, and as advisor on advancement issues for community colleges. Most recently, Reid was selected to chair CASE’s new Center for Community College Advancement Committee for two years.

She previously served on the CASE board of directors and as a member of the selection committee that named the first director for the CASE office in Mexico City. In that role, she was the only community college representative and the only U.S. citizen on an international team of higher education advancement professionals.

“I am honored and flattered to have been both nominated by our chancellor and the DCCCD Foundation board and then selected by my peers at CASE. This is the equivalent of being named ‘Doctor of the Year’ by the American Medical Association, and I am — quite frankly — humbled by this (honor),” said Reid. “Together, with my staff, we have been able to expand the DCCCD Foundation into one of the largest in the nation, and we now serve thousands of students with scholarships and support programs from the district to help those students achieve success.”

DCCCD’s chancellor, Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr., cited several key accomplishments during Reid’s career with the district. “A signature accomplishment during Betheny Reid’s tenure with the DCCCD Foundation has been the growth in resources for the foundation which, as a result, now is ranked seventh nationally among community college foundations,” said Lassiter.

He added, “A second signature accomplishment has been her leadership in a process that brought the Rising Star program to fruition. Rising Star provides a two-year scholarship for second-tier high school students who graduate in Dallas County. Thus far, more than 10,000 students have received resources for tuition, books and supplies, and that level of support is a result of the largest private-giving program in the history of DCCCD.”

DCCCD Foundation board members echoed those thoughts in their letter of support for Reid’s nomination — Douglas Hawthorne, chair of the foundation and CEO of Texas Health Resources; and Hunter Hunt, chair-elect of the foundation and vice president of Hunt Oil Company.

They said, “Having worked closely with Betheny for the past six years, we can testify to the fact that she uses her enormous talent not only to give back to the profession but also in motivating and leading our board of directors. She challenges all of us to be more involved board members and philanthropists. She is a remarkable professional whose commitment to educational access is at the core of everything she does, whether it is envisioning the Rising Star program, teaching community college presidents how to be successful at development, or presenting advancement strategies to audiences in Africa.”

For more information, contact Eddie Miranda, director of communications in the DCCCD development office, at (214) 378-1541.